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For many, the Greek islands conjure up images of an ideal escapist holiday: quiet beaches backed by a friendly taverna and washed by a translucent sea, seemingly removed from the cares of the world. Of course, reality has bitten back at this escapist's idyll. Strikes, political unrest and the financial crisis created delays, uncertainty and other headaches for Greek holiday companies last year. But they also meant bargains for late bookers. Average holiday prices fell by more than 15 per cent in July as many in search of sunshine opted instead for Turkey and Spain.

This year, the situation in Greece is still unpredictable. Operators admit that disrupted travel, failing businesses and the question mark over the euro could cause difficulties for holidaymakers as – but they could also lead to more discounts, better value for money in resorts and an even warmer welcome from the traditionally hospitable Greeks as they do their best to preserve their vital tourism industry. Here is how to find the best possible value in 2012.

Thomson (0871 231 4691; thomson.co.uk) has a late-bookings site (latedeals.co.uk), which gives a good overview of offers on all its brands. Its sister company, First Choice, offers all-inclusive packages from May 2012, with hotels in more than a dozen of the main holiday islands.

Cosmos (0844 573 4261; cosmos.co.uk) has expanded its Greek programme to include smaller islands and new mainland resorts, with prices starting at £499 per person for a seven-night stay on the island of Alonissos.

Smaller specialists

Islands of Greece (0845 675 2600; islands-of-greece.co.uk) specialises in island-hopping in the Cyclades and Sporades. Ios is a new addition this year.

Sunvil Holidays (020 8758 4758; sunvil.co.uk) offers small hotels and apartments in more than 30 islands plus mainland destinations. New for 2012 is the Aegean island of Thassos.

Direct bookings with owners can work out cheaper than going through an agency, although offer less protection if things go wrong. HomeAway Holiday Rentals (holiday-rentals.co.uk handles more than 3,360 properties in Greece; holidaylettings.co.uk has more than 1,100; ownersdirect.co.uk lists apartments, villas and b & bs; and Villarenters (villarenters.com) handles around 630 villas in Greece with the largest choice on Crete.

Cultural holidays

Benefits of top-of-the-range escorted cultural tours include small groups and high standards of expertise among lecturers, but this comes at a price.

Peter Sommer Travels (01600 888220; petersommer.com) offers two tours including a 15-day cruise in the Cyclades in May for £3,675 per person.

Expect to pay similar rates for tours offered by The Traveller (020 7269 2770; the-traveller.co.uk).

More competitive options are available through Andante Travels (01722 713800; andantetravels.co.uk), which has a cheaper "Bare Bones" programme. A seven-day tour of Athens costs £995 per person, including flights.

Of the budget, large-group touring-coach holidays, the most extensive programme is offered by Page & Moy (0870 833 4012; pageandmoy.com) and its sister company Travelsphere (0870 240 2426; travelsphere.co.uk).

Holidays on the water

Sailing Holidays (020 8459 8787; sailingholidays.com) is one of the longest-established independent flotilla holiday companies, operating in the Ionian and Saronic Islands, plus newly launched Sporades Island route. Prices for a peak week start at £865 per person including flights, transfers and diesel. Couples can cut costs by opting for its "Pot Luck" arrangement, where you share a four-berth yacht with another pair.

Active holidays

Ramblers Holidays (01707 331133; ramblersholidays.co.uk) offers some of the lowest-priced walking holidays, as well as the largest range of destinations, including islands in the Cyclades, Sporades, Dodecanese and Aegean, starting at £789 per person, including flights. Some itineraries are combined with bird watching.

Authentic Adventures (01453 823328; authenticadventures.co.uk) specialises in painting, photography and walking holidays on Santorini and, new for 2012, Ithaca. £ You can fly direct to many of Greece's best-known holiday islands from many regional UK airports. Use Skyscanner (skyscanner.net) or Jumblefly (jumblefly.com) to work out the best-value route departing from your nearest airport, saving travel costs to London.

EasyJet (easyjet.com) offers competitive fares to Athens, Crete, Corfu, Mykonos, Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Santorini, plus a new service to Kefalonia from various UK airports including Gatwick, Edinburgh, Manchester, Luton, Bristol and Liverpool.

Cheapest fares are to Corfu, starting at £47.88 return. If you're based in the Midlands or North of the UK, consider Jet2.com (jet2.com) which flies to Corfu, Rhodes, Kos and Crete, operating from five UK airports.

The best strategy is to book early to get cheapest fares. Even now, prices are beginning to rise for peak season. Ryanair (ryanair.com), which operates flights to Corfu, Crete, Kos and Rhodes, is currently charging £184 per person Stansted to Crete for Saturday to Saturday departures after schools break up in late July. This compares to £121 in June and £95.98 in May. Note you have to add checked-in bag costs of £15-£50 per leg to Ryanair's fares.

The biggest choice of both airports and destinations is offered by the charter flights companies, which start operating in April and May. Nearly two dozen departure points are offered by Thomson Airways (thomson.co.uk).

Domestic travel

Olympic Air (olympicair.com) and Aegean Airlines (see above) offer the largest network of domestic flights. Based in Heraklion in Crete, Sky Express (skyexpress.gr) flies small planes to a wide range of other island destinations. Higher fuel prices are pushing ferry fares up, but travelling by sea is usually a cheaper option than internal flights. See schedules on the Greek Travel Pages (gtp.gr) or the Greek National Tourism Organisation (visitgreece.gr).

Car hire

Car hire costs vary depending on where in Greece you are planning to holiday. The cheapest car available from Rhodes airport or from Chania (Crete) costs £163 for a week's hire in the last week of July according to Holiday Autos, compared to £201 from Corfu, Zakynthos, Mykonos or Santorini airport and £207 for a week's hire from Karpathos or Skiathos airport. £ For the lowest-price hotel-based package holidays, pick a larger island with plenty of accommodation such as Crete. Specialist operator Islands of Greece says that here you can expect to pay around £519 b & b per person per week for mid-range hotel package in peak season, including flights and transfers. This compares to high-season rates of around £769 for Santorini and £880 in Mykonos. For the best value, travel outside the summer peak – May to early July, September and early October – when package prices reduce to around £530 b & b per person per week.

For good-value self-catering accommodation, look for lesser-known regions. Villa specialist GIC says Villa Electra on Kefalonia, which has a pool, costs from £1,008 per person based on four sharing in July, with flights. By contrast, a week's stay at a similar-size property, the Senses Villa, also with pool, in the resort of Sivota, on the lesser-known north-west mainland coast of Epirus, starts at £710 per person.

Avoid fashionable coastal destinations. A villa sleeping four with a pool in Nissaki, on the north-eastern coast of Corfu, costs £1,995 per week in August through Vintage Travel. This compares to the peak price of £1,395 per week for the same size and type of property in the south-western resort of Halikouna – a less sought after part of the island. A small two-person studio in the resort of Mochios on the north-eastern coast of Crete booked through Hidden Greece will cost £796 per person for a fortnight's stay (including flights), compared to £995 each for a studio sleeping two near better-known Chania, in the west of the island.

Greece specialist Sunvil recommends taking advantage of no-frills or charter flights to Kos or Rhodes as a springboard to the smaller and better-value Dodecanese islands of Halki, Lipsi, Leros, Tilos, Nisyros or Kalymnos, which are linked to the more commercial islands by fast ferry services. You can also hop to Paros or Antiparos from Mykonos – both as beautiful, but far quieter and better value than its pricey neighbour.

From Athens you can get to the Cycladic islands of Kea (an hour by ferry) or Serifos and Sifnos (around three hours by ferry from Piraeus).

Other islands to consider include Skiathos in the north-western Aegean, where the quantity of self-catering options makes it good value for families, and the eastern Aegean island of Samos, which has direct flights from the UK, remote villages and uncrowded beaches.

If you don't want to travel too far from Athens, avoid Nafplion, Hydra, Tolon and Spetsai, where prices are pushed up by Greek weekenders. Try the island of Agistri, which is better value, easy to get to from Athens and a good base for visiting Epidauros. A week's self-catering and flights at Rosy's Little Village through Hidden Greece peaks at £616 per person in Agistri (based on two sharing in August), compared to £717 in Tolon.